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Old Town Lunenburg

Old Town Lunenburg

Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up in the home country. The inhabitants have managed to safeguard the city's identity throughout the centuries by preserving the wooden architecture of the houses, some of which date from the 18th century.

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis

Old Town Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up in the home country. The inhabitants have safeguarded the town’s identity throughout the centuries by preserving the wooden architecture of the houses and public buildings, some of which date from the 18th century and constitute an excellent example of a sustained vernacular architectural tradition. Its economic basis has traditionally been the offshore Atlantic fishery, the future of which is highly questionable at the present time.

Criterion (iv): Old Town Lunenburg is a well-preserved example of 18th century British colonial urban planning, which has undergone no significant changes since its foundation, and which largely continues to fulfil the economic and social purposes for which it was designed. Of special importance is its diversified and well-preserved vernacular architectural tradition, which spans over 250 years.

Criterion (v): Old Town Lunenburg is an excellent example of an urban community and culture designed for and based on the offshore Atlantic fishery which is undergoing irreversible change and is evolving in a form that cannot yet be fully defined.

Integrity

Within the boundaries of the 33 ha property are located all the elements necessary to express the Outstanding Universal Value of Old Town Lunenburg. The property encompasses the intact original town plan in its entirety, missing only the fortifications that surrounded the town in its early years, but of which there are no surviving above-ground remains. Its boundaries adequately ensure the complete representation of the features and processes that convey the property’s significance, and there is a 48.72 ha buffer zone. The property does not suffer unduly from adverse effects of development and/or neglect.

Authenticity

Old Town Lunenburg is authentic in location and setting, forms and designs, materials and substances, and uses and functions. The original British colonial town plan remains evident, including the regular layout of property parcels in a grid pattern with geometrically regular streets, central public spaces, and key community structures, with a functioning waterfront as its focus. In terms of forms and materials, there is a harmony of scale, siting and materials (predominantly wood) throughout the property, and a regional architectural vocabulary that includes the ‘Lunenburg bump’, an indigenous five-sided dormer. While a continuing vernacular architectural tradition is integral to the property’s Outstanding Universal Value, there has been very limited infill in the modern era. Many of the property’s historic uses and functions survive.

Most of the recent changes to the property are renovations to specific buildings, some of which have better conveyed the heritage value of Old Town Lunenburg than others. Due to long-term economic circumstances, there are also ongoing pressures on property owners in terms of rising property values, maintenance costs, and the challenges of retaining historical accuracy in restoration planning.

Protection and management requirements

Old Town Lunenburg, which is almost entirely in private ownership, is commemorated by the Government of Canada as a National Historic Site (1991) and protected under two key pieces of provincial legislation, the Municipal Government Act (1998) and the Heritage Property Act (1989), which enable the municipality to create, respectively, land-use and heritage bylaws. In this context, the municipality adopted the Heritage Conservation District Plan, Bylaw and Guidelines in 2000 (consolidated in 2001). In order to better manage the community as a World Heritage property and ensure the continuing protection of the town’s heritage resources, the Town of Lunenburg Heritage Sustainability Strategy (2010) has been developed to guide its development, including the identification of heritage, culture and tourism prospects that may produce economic opportunities for the community.

Sustaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the property over time will require managing, to the degree possible, ongoing pressures on property owners related to rising property values, maintenance costs, and the challenges of retaining historical accuracy in restoration planning. It will also require developing and implementing mechanisms to encourage building renovations that fully respect the heritage value of Old Town Lunenburg. Special attention will be given over the long term to monitoring and taking appropriate actions related to a number of factors in and near the property. Specifically, these include the potential impacts of climate change, and the impacts of tourism and visitation.